Customer Reviews

Jacknife [VHS]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I agree with all the other reviews...this is a beautifully acted piece by Robert De Niro, Ed Harris and Kathy Baker. I remember seeing this for the first time in a theater and was completely blown away by the performances and the way the subject matter was handled.

For my money, the scene near the end, when "Jacknife" finally gets Davey to break through his pain about their pal Bobby dying in Vietnam, is one of the most heartbreaking I've ever seen in any film.

Ed Harris is simply remarkable and damn near steals the film. This was the first time I'd seen Kathy Baker, and I don't think she's ever been better. And De Niro...wow. This was a peformance from him that I'd never seen before, and he just knocked me off my seat.

Now if someone can get the rights to this film and get it on DVD...that would be great.

For Steve S. "dbronx" this film is available on DVD with multi-regions capabalities which can be played in The United States. The DVD has been re-mastered and has 5.1 channels digital sound. You can buy it form a private seller through Amazon.com. It is a bit pricey ( $21.00 Us Dollars) but it's worth it!! I would have paid much more if I had to. My VHS version is on it's way to the trash. By the way, it is safe and secure to buy from private sellers as they never get to see your credit card number, since Amazon.com receives the order and the credit card #.

I am a BIG fan of De Niro, but I have to agree with other reviewers that Ed Harris, acting was superb and flawless!

Wonderful movie about friendship, pain, love, and loyalty. Ed Harris turns in yet another powerful performance. This is one of those small and overlooked films that packs an emotional punch. This could have played like just another movie-of-the-week, but the script is gentle yet taut, and the cast brings so much greatness to it that they elevate it on all fronts. DeNiro is perfect, of course, but Ed Harris' breakdown at the end really tugs at the ol' heartstrings.

JACKNIFE is a fine adaptation of Stephen Metcalfe's play 'Strange Snow' (the screenplay was also written by Metcalfe), sensitively directed by
David Hugh Jones, that explores the too frequently forgotten effect of battle on veterans damaged permanently by the heinous cruelties of war. It is especially poignant to return to this 1989 film now as we watch the soldiers returning from the war in Iraq and the raw treatment they are receiving in our Veterans' Hospitals.

Three friends went off to the Vietnam War together and only two returned alive: the problem is that while both men suffered in battle the one David 'Highschool' Flannigan (Ed Harris) is so severely damaged by posttraumatic stress syndrome that he 'exists' in a drunken vacuum with his very plain schoolteacher sister Martha (Kathy Baker). As David deteriorates his buddy Joseph 'Jacknife' Megessey (Robert De Niro) returns to the town in an attempt to help his friend. In the course of events Jacknife at first offers succor to Martha and eventually the two date - at a Prom Martha must attend - and at that prom drunken David completely falls apart, destroying relics in the school and terrifying the townspeople and students. Jacknife makes Dave relive the moment in Vietnam when they lost their buddy and in doing so brings David to the point where he can begin his climb toward recovery. And the longsuffering Martha finds her needs tended by Jacknife, too.

All three actors give astonishingly fine performances: Ed Harris offers one of his most fully realized roles while De Niro and Baker maintain the high standards set by their careers. More people should help resurrect this all but forgotten film as it is a brittle reminder of the damages our wars bring to the men who fight them and to the families who receive them after battle's end. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, March 07

I bought this movie because I am taking an acting class on character study, and I am working on a scene from Stephen Metcalfe's "Strange Snow", the play upon which "Jacknife" is based. Since the play's script is no longer available, I had to go with the movie to get the "big picture" of the characters and their motivations. But damn! What a great movie! The acting is just stupendous and the climactic scene with Ed Harris & De Niro is so powerful. Wish it was on DVD!

Why don't my friends know about this movie? This movie should be common knowledge...out on DVD and sitting on the video store shelf somewhere in front of the last Tomb Raider film...right in front of it. Instead it's a "mystery"... and one of my favorites. That it isn't out on DVD is strange. I own an old copy on VHS...always took it for granted that I could get it on DVD anytime. It is one of the strongest and most beautiful expressions of hope and friendship that I've seen in a film. All of the actors do an amazing job...this film rings true. We celebrate the "flavor of the week"...but this film is beautiful...and deserves a huge audience.

This film is about how one friend should help another friend who is lost and in pain. In telling us the story of two buddies haunted by Vietnam, "Jacknife" shows us how we should treat one another but so seldom do.
The film doesn't deal with the rights or wrongs of the war. It deals with helping each other and keeping promises. In the process, three souls are saved.
Don't miss this beautifully perfomed film. It will move and inspire you. I regret the film hasn't been put out in DVD format. I hope it will be. It is too important a movie to be forgotten.
Get the VHS version if you can't get it on DVD. You don't want to miss this masterful film.
P.S. - I wrote this review some time ago, and I'm glad to say the movie has been released in DVD format. So, enjoy this fine film and learn why it is important we keep our promises.

This is perhaps the most likable role Robert De Niro has ever had, as a Vietnam vet doing his best to come to terms with the death of a friend he served with there. The stellar ensemble work he does with Ed Harris, as another embittered vet who served with De Niro, and with Kathy Baker as the Harris character's sister and De Niro's love interest, make for a movie that's touching without being overly sentimental. It also serves as another reminder of why De Niro is justly called one of the screen's best actors.

As a Viet Nam veteran, this movie had a tremendous impact on me when I first saw it. Each time I watch it, I am totally engrossed by not only the subject matter, but in the finest performances I have seen, by not only Robert DiNiro, but also Kathy Baker and Ed Harris. This is a tender, yet gut wrenching story of a Viet Nam vet, DiNiro, who returns home to help another vet, Ed Harris, finally come to terms with their tragically entwined past. In the process he meets and falls in love with his friends sister, played by Kathy Baker, in a masterful and understated performance which lends credibility to the adage that sometimes less is more. I truly feel that this movie, and all it's stars, should have at least been nominated for Academy Awards. A truly gripping and realistic drama.

Released in 1989, "Jacknife" tells the story of Megs (Robert De Niro), a Vietnam vet who looks up an old war buddy in Connecticut. The buddy is Dave (Ed Harris), a bachelor and drunkard who lives with his sister, Martha (Kathy Baker), in their inherited parent's house in the old neighborhood. Dave & Martha's situation has degenerated into lifeless habit and stagnation. Megs doesn't look up Dave because he necessarily wants to but because he has to -- they have a longstanding date to go fishing, a date with much significance.

Kathy is a biology teacher and the classic enabler, a one-woman support system enabling her brother to continue in his miserable cycle of booze/hangover/booze. She's trapped and her guilt will not let her escape, and she knows shes trapped.

There's a scene of Kathy leaving the school at the end of her work day where she goes out of her way to stop at the trophy case and looks at old pictures of her brother when he was a high school hero with much potential. You can feel what she feels as she looks at those pictures.

Dave warns Kathy about Megs -- he's half crazy and has spent a lot of time in the slammer on assault charges, but Kathy instinctively senses that Megs is their catalyst to change, their "delivererer," carbuncles and all. Yet Megs needs change as well, and Kathy is HIS deliverer. Megs is an eccentric outcast and Kathy is his golden connection to a sense of family and community, things he's been running from since he got out of the war 20 years earlier.

Kathy is a bit of a plain jane. Her stagnated lifestyle is reflected on her face. No one invited her to her Prom back in high school and who knows the last time she had a date. Yet on her initial meeting with Megs he just happens to mention she's pretty. This immediately changes her demeanor. When was the last time she felt the warmth of a genuine compliment concerning her looks? She naturally starts to develop love for this man -- a deeply flawed man -- somehthing she hasn't felt for a long, long time, perhaps never. And she slowly starts to blossom.

"Jacknife" is the perfect antidote to modern cgi-laden drivel like "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Iron Man." Don't get me wrong, those types of films have their place, like when you're in the mood for mindless entertainment -- goofy one-liners and all. By contrast, "Jacknife" is meaningful and character-driven; suspense is created via raw, unpredictable emotion and outstanding acting (by all three members of the triangle). Take, for instance, the truck-driving scene where Dave and Megs have a confrontation. Megs starts to put the meddle to the peddle as they drive down an incline. Dave had implied that Megs was crazy and now Megs is making a statement. Or is he? Who knows what he's doing?! The truck goes faster and faster and the viewer is uncertain if this lunatic is going to kill 'em both or what.

This scene is potent because it strikes the viewer as REAL. For me it brought to memory a similar situation when my wife and I were traveling through the heart of West Virginia. We drove in silence for a long time, perhaps two hours, and then I completely exploded, screaming at the top of my lungs -- spit and tears flying. Yet I wasn't yelling at her -- not at all -- it went much deeper than that. We were flying down the highway faster and faster while I continued to vent in raw emotion. Then my wife, the epitome of calm and stable, screams out, "IF YOU'RE GOING TO WRECK MAKE SURE YOU KILL US BOTH!!!" That was almost four years ago and, thankfully, nothing like it has happened since. Why do I bring this experience up? Because "Jacknife," albeit a tad stagey (which is natural since it was based on a play), rings so true.

The film was shot on location in the heart of Connecticut in Meriden, Cromwell and Wethersfield (the diner scene). The story obviously takes place in November and the authentic locations are great.

BOTTOM LINE: If you're in the mood for a meaningful, character-driven drama you can't go wrong with "Jacknife."

PERSONAL GRADE: A-